Old pennies worth 40,000 pounds found

LONDON - Nearly 180 rare 12th century pennies have been found in Britain by a group of amateur treasure hunters.

The West Riding Detector Group found 178 coins dating back to the reign of Henry I in a farmland near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.

The collection is considered to be worth around 40,000 pounds.

“Usually when you are detecting you find bits of old cartridge case or worthless metal, but that day every time you heard a bleep it was another coin. We weren’t even supposed to have an outing that day and it was organised at the last minute, but we’re all pretty pleased we went,” Daily Express quoted group member Peter Spencer as saying.

Julian Szulc, another group member, said: “It was like winning the lottery. I have been detecting for 10 years and this is something you can only dream about. I think we might get about £40,000 for them, which is a brilliant amount, but it is about more than the money for us.”